Will wild card Letterman throw David Cameron a curve ball?

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WILL CAMERON OR LETTERMAN HAVE THE LAST WORD?
CLIVE ANDERSON ON THE PM'S LATE SHOW INTERVIEW
"Bravely, as Sir Humphrey Appleby might have put it, the British Prime Minister has chosen to go head to head with the king of American talk show hosts", says Clive Anderson in The Daily Telegraph. David Letterman is unpredictable. He might restrict himself to setting up pre-agreed anecdotes, or he could "throw in a curve ball to knock his guest sideways". How will David Cameron cope? Even Boris Johnson "looked more than usually out of place being grilled by Letterman". The complexities of the coalition and Leveson might be of little interest to Letterman's audience. Instead, he might ask about the Camerons forgetting their child in a pub last summer, Plebgate, Prince Harry, the Duchess of Cambridge and perhaps "a mention of that crazy Boris guy we had here recently - when is he going to steal your job"?

BBC IN TROUBLE WITH THE QUEEN FOR DOING ITS JOB
ARCHIE BLAND ON ROYAL PROTOCOL
After setting the news agenda with an eye-popping story about the Queen's vigorous views on the deportation of Abu Hamza yesterday, the BBC was forced to give a craven apology for abusing a confidence, says Archie Bland in The Independent. Frank Gardner, the journalist who broke the story, was apparently guilty of passing on the content of a private conversation with Her Majesty. It's true that journalists owe their sources protection. If the conversation was explicitly off the record, an apology is warranted. But if, as it seems, it was simply a matter of royal protocol that the Queen's opinions aren't repeated, it's possible Gardner, a security correspondent, was unaware of this. Like Kate Middleton's breasts, Her Majesty's opinions are private business. "But if she's mouthing off about matters of policy, don't the public have a right to know about it?" Gardner shouldn't be punished for doing his job.

MITCHELL SAGA HIGHLIGHTS EROSION OF FREEDOM
SIMON JENKINS ON POLICING
The Chief Whip's recent outburst comes as no surprise, says Simon Jenkins in The Evening Standard. What's surprising is that it wasn't overheard by a bug in the Downing Street gate. Policing in central London has become increasingly heavy-handed. "The casual inconvenience now imposed by anonymous officials in the name of health, safety and counter-terrorism is out of all proportion to the risks." In this blanket authoritarianism, the single word "security" silences all. Paradoxically, as London is increasingly privatised, individual freedom has never been more regulated. "If Mitchell has to resign, which would be daft, he should appoint himself the representative of citizen freedom." As he rides his bike past No Entry signs, howling abuse at authorities, "some of us will cheer him on his way".